"When comparing law schools, I was extremely concerned about not only the quality of my legal education, but also the amount of money I would end up paying for that education. I was accepted to multiple schools all over the country but stuck with LSU because I will graduate with a smaller amount of debt and will have received an excellent education."

Hats ‘n Canes

Seniors in Fall 1930 started the tradition of sporting hats andblacks canes with curved handles and a silver band. As the LSU Reveille put it, “Walking canes will be carried, flourished and brandished” as a “badge of distinguish law students.” That Class of 1931 announced that it hoped to lay the foundation for a Law School tradition, which indeed became the case.

The tradition continues to this day as 3Ls and the LSU Law dean wear derby hats and black canes on the steps of the Law Center and give a toast to their final year of law school.

The cane the LSU Law dean uses each year was a gift by the school’s first graduating class of 1908 to then-dean Joseph Kelly. It features a gold handle with the inscription “To Joseph Kelly, PHD., Dean LSU Law School, Baton Rouge, La., from Pioneer Law Class, May 1908.” The derby hat the LSU Law dean wears was a gift from the graduating class of 1938.